A Brief History of School-to-Work

The Indiana P-16 Plan will complete government takeover of the
Indiana Public School System

Introduction:

Although federal funding amounts to less than one percent ($7.07 million) of the Indiana public school budgets ($1.47 Billion) it, the federal education system, in effect is now writing the rules under which the state, constitutionally mandated school system operates. Under these rules, each of the following federal statutes has effectively placed more and more of the Indiana public school system under federal control. Obviously, this brief introduction to these various laws barely introduces them to the reader to them. However, clustered together as here, they show how the Indiana P-16 Plan completes the government takeover of the Indiana School System and introduces a controlled citizenry to the state.

Goals 2000: (Signed as federal law in 1994) This legislation provided the basis for the state to establish the Department of Workforce Development and set up a Workforce Committee to oversee the state work force growth. (See any edition of the “Roster of State and Local Officials” after 1994.) All state agencies associated with the state work force have by now, 2003, been assimilated into, and are under the Department of Workforce Development. Under it (from the 133rd edition Roster of State and Local Officials) are: The Indiana Occupational Information Coordinating Committee, Indiana Unemployment Insurance Review Board, Vocational and Technical Education, Workforce Proficiency Panel

Outcome Based Education: (Federal law, 1980) This law dumbed-down teaching, brought in fuzzy math and creative spelling. It teaches children to guess at words using “clues” rather than to teach phonics. In math the children are taught to guess and check until they get the right answer. It changes student beliefs and attitudes to school (state)-defined social norms. Instead of teaching facts it focuses on students feelings and emotions. Basic subjects are taught as “threads” that appear in other “feeling” oriented subject areas.

School-to-Work: (1994) Brought Career-based instructions into the classrooms starting from first grade and lasting to graduation. Requires every child to commit to two years work, for no pay, in a business associated with his career choice. The child is expected to provide his own transportation to and from the work place. This places him on the streets during school hours and conflicts with child labor laws. The work place that employs the child can sell any product produced by the child at a profit. This is a return to apprenticeship training with no investment required by the associated business. It provides for only twenty job tracks to be available to the students. Some youngsters have already been crippled in this program. (See the link below) Unelected government employees do the job assignments. Insurance for the students on the job is unspecified.

No-Child-Left-Behind: (2002) Federal Plan. It is voluntary for each school to join, but after the school joins it becomes mandatory that the school meet federal mandated standards. The NAEP test is a federal qualification test given to 2500 students in six selected schools in the state. The results are extrapolated to find how the state education is advancing and qualifies state schools to join. It, this test, thus qualifies individual Indiana schools directly for federal money. It forces each school and town to comply with detailed standards-standards set by the Department of Education-or face penalties and consequencies. Accountability is now to Washington rather than to local parents or to local school boards. At present, each state school can join NCLB without General Assembly approval. However, this “voluntary” sign-up bypasses the Legislative process and converts the state schools into federal schools. (In Indiana, the Constitution (Article VIII, Section I) forbids this direct federal association by all state government public schools.)

Smaller Learning Centers: (Federal Plan) Funded by the federal government through the Department of Education. This plan divides larger high schools into five smaller, limited and directed, (vocational) school systems. The students select their course of study (their career choice) in the eighth grade and are required to stay in that study throughout their high school years. This is currently being established in the Indianapolis Public School system and was funded by a $2,242,031 DOE grant. The grant was accepted by the IPS School Board in its August 2002 meeting. Under this vocational training system the students are separated into the twenty job tracks established in the School-to-Work law. Student assignments and future career selections are now under the control of government, non-elected employees. (Subsequently, a $10 million grant was received from the Gates Foundation and the school system is trying to suppress reference to the DOE grant.) It is unexplained how a student who has chosen the engineering pathway can choose to take a touch typing class in a different SLC.

Indiana P-16 Plan: (Announced November 2003) This proposed legislation extends the hand of the state deeply into the family and home life. It advocates pre-natal child care for every child through the school. Under it, from birth to age seven the school (read state) is to provide whatever child care and childhood experiences it deems necessary to all children. None are excluded. It proposes to track the student from conception to birth, through childhood, elementary school, high school, through college and then for years afterwards. It proposes to provide and control education made available to older persons. The published plan implies it will work with the Department of Workforce Development and whatever “certificates” that agency chooses to issue. With the previously listed programs already in place, this plan gives almost total school (state) control of the family from conception to old age. It provides no exemption for charter schools, private schools or home schools. Those schools are not mentioned. This plan places the child’s career selection totally in the hands of unelected government administrators.

Repeat: There is no exemption for charter schools, private schools or home schools. The SAT will be changed to reflect subjects taught in the government schools, hence these alternate schools will be forced to change their curriculum to match that taught in the government schools.

Addenda:

For the Indiana school/state work system to achieve total control of the state work force, all that is left is for the state to install the Certificate of Initial Mastery. When that certificate, a card, is installed as a requirement for jobs in Indiana, the state will have attained total control of its work force. Thenceforth, worker mobility, will cease to exist.

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Suggested Reading: “FedEd. The New Federal Curriculum and How it’s Enforced” by Allen Quist. Available from http://www.EdWatch.org.

STW Harms Students, Businesses
http://www.edwatch.org/eagleforum.org.educate/2000/beb00/stw-harms.html

U.N. Influence in U.S. Schools
http://www.wnd.com/new/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36752